


Orpheus, Narcissus, Eurydice, and Several Broken Sinks

by Chitra_Rive



Category: The Mechanisms (Band), Ulysses Dies at Dawn - The Mechanisms (Album)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Humor, Pining, Pre-Canon, Recreational Drug Use, bi4bi orpheus and eurydice, eurydice my beloved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-19 07:01:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29995650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chitra_Rive/pseuds/Chitra_Rive
Summary: As described.Written for day two of Mechs Album Week.
Relationships: Eurydice & Narcissus & Orpheus (Ulysses Dies at Dawn), Eurydice/Orpheus (Ulysses Dies at Dawn), Narcissus/Orpheus (Ulysses Dies at Dawn)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 13
Collections: Mechs Album Week





	Orpheus, Narcissus, Eurydice, and Several Broken Sinks

**Author's Note:**

> finally everyone gets to see how i write eurydice!! she deserves to be as much as a weirdo as orpheus and narcissus. i've seen someone hcing her as like,, the functional woman trope. imho its so much funnier if shes just Like That & then that's a reason for them to be friends. also im in love with her

Orpheus’ sink was very, very, broken. He squished his hand in it in case that made the water drain away better. He’d been given a potted plant he quite decisively had not wanted. Pleading a pollen allergy hadn’t worked. In retrospect, the fact that it was wax was indomitable evidence against his claim, though he’d fake-sneezed so terribly much he felt it should have lent him some credit. Cajoled into taking it home, he’d made sure he was in the security of his flat and then tried to tear the awful thing up with the garburator in his sink. Key word  _ tried.  _ Again, his sink was very, very,  _ very  _ broken. 

The poet decided to pay a call to his friends. Eurydice lived across from him, which would have been ideal for sending romantic messages between windows if not for the fact hers looked out in the other direction, onto a boarded-up alleyway. Such were the trials and tribulations of our beleaguered protagonist. Despite this misfortune, it did mean her flat was very easy to get to. 

Knocking on her door several times, he stood and waited for a response. 

Eurydice opened it soon enough. A grin crossed her face on seeing that it was him. “Orpheus! I was expecting someone attempting to petition door to door or something. What’s up?”

“Can I use your sink?” 

“No, sorry! It’s got rocks in!” Eurydice said that like it was the most exciting sentence in the world. 

Orpheus tried to edge past her to see inside. Rocks and sinks didn’t usually go together, but then again, neither did potted plants and sinks. “Why are there rocks in your sink?” 

“I found them. They’re nice to look at, and also one glows and it miiiight be able to cause radiation poisoning.” 

Continuing to question her would likely go nowhere. Eurydice was just like that. Once she’d gotten it into her head to climb a skyscraper. Another time they’d found her escaping from an angry mob and she’d never gotten around to explaining why they were chasing her. Orpheus was head over heels in love. 

“Well, what should I do then? I can’t go on without a sink.”   


“Narcissus has a sink. A very nice one.” 

“Cost him several thousand more than it should have.” 

“Well, that makes sense! It’s gold-plated and everything!”

Orpheus put his head in his hands. “He doesn’t  _ need  _ a gold-plated sink.  _ No one _ needs a gold-plated sink.”

“But gold’s lovely!” Eurydice got a distant look in her eyes. “I should try to rob Hades again…”

Calculating in his head, Orpheus worked out that since he’d bailed Narcissus out last time, it was her go now, or Narcissus’ if- and this seemed likely- she was the one to get arrested. Besides, if that didn’t work, Dionysus usually came through in a crisis. Either way, the responsibility wasn’t on him. “If you want to, that’s your prerogative.” A pause.  _ “Again?” _

Eurydice grinned at him. “Again!” She had two silver crowns on her teeth that the light from the streetlamps and neon signs reflected off of, and a dimple in her left cheek. As always, he was besotted by her smile. Simplicity of feelings was hard to come by among the social elite who formed their circles. Eurydice had no elaborate lie of a backstory. She was a girl from the lower levels who’d been looking for a job. Beautiful and with a natural gift for people caused by genuinely tending to find everyone interesting, Dionysus’ employ had been the best bet.

They’d met one night at the bar. She’d heard his name and instantly turned around. “Are you  _ Orpheus?” _

“Yes,” Orpheus had said, uncharacteristically embarrassed at the attention. Odd- he usually loved the spotlight wholeheartedly. Attentions of his fans did grow tiresome after awhile, though, so he hoped she wasn’t one of those sorts. (Eurydice had told him later, laughingly, that she had been, but that had vanished upon actually meeting face to face.) 

She took his hand and shook it. “You’re shorter than I expected.” 

“I’m taller than you,” was all he could think to say. 

“Yes, but I’m working on fixing that. D’you want to get out of here?” 

Agreeing had led to a lovely night getting high sitting on the scaffolding connecting a rooftop to the building constructed on top of it. Eurydice had decided they were fast friends, and he wasn’t going to argue with her, given how well they got on. Excepting his romantic feelings, of course. Mutual interest was likely, not certain, and he didn’t wish to ruin their friendship. And of course there was how to tell her. Grand romantic gestures felt like they should be his forte, and those required  _ planning.  _

No more time to reflect- here and now, she was shoving him out the door. “Go talk to Narcissus!”

“Alright alright,” Orpheus laughed, “but at some point we’ve got to talk about the attempted robbery.” 

“A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.” 

“Antagonizing an Olympian?” 

“As a treat!”

“You’re ridiculous.” 

“You’re hypocritical. Want to tell me how exactly you broke your sink?” 

“No,” said Orpheus, and left to go find Narcissus. 

Upon hearing that Orpheus required the use of his sink, his friend seemed unreasonably pleased with himself. “I knew you’d come around to my side too. Ceramic sinks don’t have the glamour I can provide.”

“For the last time,” Orpheus repeated, “this is  _ not  _ about your gold sink.” 

“What else would it be about? I think you weren’t expecting me to see through to your motives and now you’re attempting to obfuscate. Come in, you look dreadfully silly standing out in the doorway like that.” 

Venturing inside, Orpheus shoved several heavily embroidered pillows out of his way and sat down on the heavily embroidered sofa. He felt as if he should have worn a suit with more patterning. Like a chameleon, he could have blended into the lurid stripes on the sofa and never be seen again. Perhaps it was best he hadn’t; he didn’t wish to lose himself. 

Narcissus sat down next to him. In a display of hubris, he decided to sit on top of the pile of pillows, giving him a second foot over Orpheus to add to his normal one. Being the sort of pillow that were obnoxiously slick and had little to no reason for existing other to stress the point that you had money, he immediately sent everything- including himself- sliding off. 

Orpheus buried his face in his hands. 

Getting back to his feet, Narcissus brushed himself off and sat back down, projecting the cool air of someone who had never made a silly mistake in his life. “Anyway. As I was saying, feel free to use my sink. What’re friends for if not to help each other out occasionally?”

“Speaking of, it’s your go to break Eurydice out of jail.” 

“Speaking of! Yes, speaking of Eurydice. When are you going to confess?” 

Orpheus startled. “How did you know-”

“You pine like it’s an Olympic sport, old thing. It’s never subtle. You act like the average person does around me, but around her as well.” He spoke like Orpheus’ behavior around him was standard and around Eurydice was some sort of affront against his appearance. “She likes you back, you know. Or at the very least, she’s asked you on several dates.” 

Light dawned on Orpheus’ face. “Is  _ that  _ what those were?” 

“Yes, you nitwit- or at least, I believe so. Tell you what, I’ll have her over tonight and you can ask yourself.” 

“What? No. If the answer is no, I’ll come off as presumptive, and if it’s yes, I’ll look like a fool.” 

“ I am sorry, old thing, but looking a fool seems to be an inescapable malady for you.” 

Orpheus threw a pillow at him. Surprisingly, Narcissus managed to catch it and throw it back. They passed a few meaningless minutes tossing the useless pillow back and forth before they came to their senses. 

He shook off the oddness. As was his customary state, he was a bit out of it. Composing, his at least, was better when on Lotus. He certainly found his writing better high than sober, at least. 

“No, but you really should just ask,” Narcissus said, bringing the plot back. “You’ll waste away pining like this in your perceived unrequited romance.” 

Our unfortunate romantic kept his silence. 

“I’m going to make you, then,” Narcissus said. “I’ll go calling on her right now.” True to his word, he got up, opened his front door- taking the time to tap seven times on the doorframe- and slammed it behind him. 

“Don’t take the car!” Orpheus shouted in vain. The engine had already started, and it would have roared loud enough to drown him out even if there wasn’t a door and a flight of stairs between them. 

Draping himself over the entirety of the sofa as was his proclivity, he pondered the consequences of straining his voice via yelling. He’d have to be more careful in the future, but honestly, every day he grew more and more worried that Narcissus would crash and kill himself somehow.

His friend and his hopeful paramour returned in a few minutes, far before he could have properly absorbed into the sofa even in a patterned suit. Eurydice was musing on ways she could modify or reconstruct the car. Both of his best friends having a car like that was a nightmare scenario, and Orpheus said so whilst Eurydice dropped her coat unceremoniously onto the tile floor.

When he’d called on her before, she’d been in the middle of something, bangs tied up into a tiny ponytail on top of her head and wearing ratty overalls from when she used to work nights at the Acheron, and he had been in love with her. Now, she was dressed in her good suit, dark pink with gold embellishments on the sleeves and matching makeup accentuating her calf-brown eyes, and he was in love with her.

Which- being in love with her- was an issue. “I thought you weren’t inviting her round till this evening.” 

“I’m here now,” Eurydice sat down on the arm of the couch- “and anyhow we’re all working this evening, which Narcissus  _ forgot.”  _

“I can’t be expected to recall every little detail, old thing, that’s what I keep you around for.” Narcissus removed a compact from his pocket and began fastidiously touching up his makeup.

“Can I borrow that after you?” asked Orpheus, who had also forgotten and was feeling rather undressed in his smudged eyeliner and artfully unbuttoned sleeves. 

“I won’t have you letting the colors run together like some people I could mention. Let me do it.” He finished with himself and leaned over to Orpheus. Dipping his finger in, he ran it gently over Orpheus’ eyelids. His hands were soft, and the tip of his acrylic nail ghosted across our doubly besotted lover’s brow. The makeup remover and liquid eyeliner that followed were at least a reprieve to his now burning face. 

Application of lipstick would have made the whole thing unbearable, so Orpheus interrupted. “Matte black? Really? I have my own, you know, it’s fine now.” 

“Trust me, you’ll look lovely. Clients will be tripping over themselves to pay you. In fact, speaking of you being charming-” He looked meaningfully towards Eurydice. 

This was more than Orpheus could take. He stood up, looking desperately for a way out of this situation. There- that awful, awful, gold-plated sink. Finding his own lipstick in his pocket, ossified with age, he threw it into the drain. Smacking his hand on the garburator switch, he watched it try and fail to eat it. Wheezing a last breath, it clanked around worryingly loudly and then stopped making any sound at all. 

Orpheus fled the scene.

Eurydice caught up with him a few blocks away. He was not a fast man. Eurydice was not typically a fast woman, but she was compensating for a binder and platforms more often than not, which she’d forgone today. “Orpheus! Why’d you run off?”

“Crisis.” 

“You can’t use that as an excuse, you’re always having a crisis.” She fell into step beside him. “Want to steal some of Narcissus’ champagne and gossip about him on some balcony?” 

“I would love that.” Orpheus paused. “It’s a date?”

“Oh, absolutely.” For a moment she looked unsure and nervous. “If you want it to be?” 

“Of course I do.” 

Well, that cleared up that. Shame about the sink, but at least he’d made his escape.

...wait. Sinks, plural. None of them had a functioning one now. He might be just a little bit fucked.


End file.
